Abstract
The Council of Europe is a European international organisation with the aim to promote the cooperation of its member states on the basis of democracy, respect for human rights and the state of law. Until 1989 its membership was confined to the Western European states. Soon after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact in 1989, the first Eastern European states applied for membership. Since 1989, the membership of the Council of Europe has enlarged from 23 to now 44 states.
The application for membership of the Eastern European countries, part of which did not fulfil the standards developed by the Council of Europe in the field of democracy, respect for human rights and the state of law, were highly controversially discussed within the Council of Europe, in particular in the case of Russia. The organisation finally decided to admit all "European" states, but only on condition of certain obligations and commitments to be undertaken by the applicant states. Thereby the organisation wanted to support the transformation process from within the organisation.
This dissertation analyses the particular problems arising out of the wide admission policy.
Chapter 2, after the Introduction, gives an overview of the history of the organisation, its relations with the Eastern European states until 1989 and an analysis of the most important issues for the organisation in its attempt to define its role after 1989. The introduction of the special guest status and the different stages in the discussion about the admission policy are analysed with respect to the individual admission candidates. Additionally the position of the Council of Europe in juxtaposition to other international organisations such as the OSCE and the EU is examined with regard to their particular comparative advantages and disadvantages. Chapter 3 gives an analysis of the institutional changes within the organisation, with particular attention to the new organ "Council of Local and Regional Authorities", the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and the commission "Democracy through Law".
The central chapter 4 examines the different monitoring procedures within the Council of Europe, part of which had existed before (especially the European Court for Human Rights) whereas others were introduced in the context of the Eastern European states´ admission. The analysis focusses on the monitoring procedure introduced by the Parliamentary Assembly, which presents an innovative approach to ensure the fulfillment of the commitments entered into by the new member states.
In addition to the monitoring procedures, special assistance programmes (the so-called ADACS programmes) were introduced by the Council of Europe (chapter 4).
The interplay of these different mechanisms is examined in two case studies (chapter 5). The case of Estonia is a positive example for the efficacy of the Council of Europe´s approach, whereas the steps taken by the organisation in reaction to the conflicts in the Russian Republic of Chechnya illustrate the limits of its capacity to act and react. |
